This Is The Central Principle Of Meditation:

My Grandmother Lived In A Universe Filled With Life. It Was Impossible For Her To Conceive Of Any Creature - Even The Smallest Insect, Let Alone A Human Being - As Insignificant. In Every Leaf, Flower, Animal, And Star She Saw An Expression Of A Compassionate Universe, Whose Laws Were Not Competition And Survival Of The Fittest But Cooperation, Artistry And Thrift. . . .

Excitement And Depression, Fortune And Misfortune, Pleasure And Pain Are Storms In A Tiny Private, Shell-bound Realm - Which We Take To Be The Whole Of Existence. Yet We Can Break Out Of This Shell And Enter A New World.

Instead Of Looking At Difficulties As Deprivations, We Can Learn To Recognize Them As Opportunities For Deepening And Widening Our Love.

Love Is So Exquisitely Elusive. It Cannot Be Bought, Cannot Be Badgered, Cannot Be Hijacked. It Is Available Only In One Rare Form: As The Natural Response Of A Healthy Mind And Healthy Heart.

A Calm Mind Releases The Most Precious Capacity A Human Being Can Have: The Capacity To Turn Anger Into Compassion, Fear Into Fearlessness, And Hatred Into Love.